Adelaide: India’s captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat in the World Cup Pool B match against Pakistan at the Adelaide Oval on Sunday.
Veteran Younis Khan was chosen to open the batting for Pakistan in place of the dropped Nasir Jamshed. Umar Akmal was picked to keep wickets after Sarfraz Ahmed was left out.
Defending champions India went in with two spinners in Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, with a three-man seam attack for company led by Mohammad Shami.
A sell-out crowd of over 47,000 was at hand to watch the much-anticipated match between the arch-rivals, with an estimated audience of 1.5 billion following it on television.
A winning start for either team will boost their hopes of taking one of the four quarter-final spots from the pool which also includes mighty South Africa, the West Indies, Ireland, Zimbabwe and the United Arab Emirates.
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohit Sharma, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav.
Pakistan: Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Ahmed Shahzad, Younis Khan, Haris Sohail, Shahid Afridi, Sohaib Maqsood, Umar Akmal, Mohammad Irfan, Sohail Khan, Wahab Riaz, Yasir Shah.
Umpires: Richard Kettleborough (ENG) and Ian Gould (ENG)
TV umpire: Steve Davis (AUS)
Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (SRI)
Weather: Mostly sunny. Maximum temperature 39 Celsius. (AFP)
